Checking your overflowing Gmail inbox -- or sending out a message to an important business contact -- is a pretty surefire way to make your pulse quicken and your mind start racing with worries about deadlines and obligations. In fact, one study actually found that checking and sending email at work can increase your blood pressure and heart rate, and cause levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the body to spike.

"People expect us to respond within 24 hours ... just handling the amount of email we get can be stressful," Dr. Lillian Cheung, mindfulness expert and editorial director of The Nutrition Source at Harvard, tells the Huffington Post. "But instead of getting stressed and overwhelmed with emails, I think it's an opportunity for us to refresh and restore ourselves."

Taking a moment to perform a short meditation before sending an email can be an easy way to lower your stress levels and integrate mindfulness into your everyday work life. Before sending out your next message, try a simple breathing exercise outlined by Cheung and zen master Thich Nhat Hahn in their book "Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life."

After writing an email, stop and take three deep breathes, focusing on each inhale and exhale. You can repeat to yourself, "Breathing in, I thank the power of the Internet. Breathing out, I am fully conscious of my current email actions." Then, input your recipient and cc-recipient addresses, and click send on the email.

"Not only are you helping yourself to calm down, but you're also preventing yourself from making mistakes," says Cheung. "It's just a moment of pause and it doesn't take long."